1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus, an image processing apparatus, an image processing method and a computer-readable medium, and more particularly, to an image recording apparatus, an image processing apparatus, an image processing method and a computer-readable medium which carry out data processing by conjointly using a plurality of image processes, in respect of image data for performing recording on a recording medium (recording paper) using a recording head having a plurality of recording elements.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-136764 discloses an image correction method for an inkjet recording apparatus which records an image by ejecting ink onto a recording medium using a recording head in which a plurality of nozzles for ejecting ink are arranged, wherein an ejection failure determination pattern for investigating the ejection status of the recording head is recorded and measured, and on the basis of this, ejection failure nozzles are identified, in addition to which a shading pattern is recorded and measured to determine the density distribution corresponding to the respective nozzles, and an amount of compensation for performing compensation with different colors is determined on the basis of the determined density distribution or the result of carrying out suitable calculations in respect of the density distribution.
According to the image correction method in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-136764, it is possible to carry out ejection failure correction in accordance with the state of droplet ejection, such as the positional deviation of adjacent nozzles, droplet volume non-uniformities, and the like, by using density data for the periphery of an ejection failure nozzle.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-136764 does not disclose in particular the changing of the image processing steps when outputting an ejection failure nozzle determination pattern or a shading pattern, or when subsequently outputting an image corrected for non-uniformities. However, in cases where a plurality of non-uniformity corrections are used conjointly, for instance, a case which combines ejection failure correction and shading correction, or a case which also combines other non-uniformity correction, such as non-uniformity correction in respect of droplet ejection position error, there is a possibility that problems occur, in which, for example, image processing steps for outputting a normal image are identified wrongly as image processing steps for outputting a test pattern.
For example, in a case where the image processing steps in the case of normal image output include an ejection failure correction step and a shading correction step, the shading correction step is not used when outputting a test pattern for shading measurement. This is because it is not possible to measure shading accurately from a test pattern for shading measurement which has been output by applying shading correction.